United Way cutting ties with longtime partner agency

Financial concerns have prompted United Way of Gaston County to sever ties with another nonprofit it has supported for years.

Michael Barrett

Financial concerns have prompted United Way of Gaston County to sever ties with another nonprofit it has supported for years.

The decision means United Way will no longer provide program funding for Family Service Inc., or list it as a partner agency. It comes on the heels of fiscal questions that emerged last year about Family Service, and prompted several high-level staff members to be fired or resign.

United Way’s board of directors voted to terminate its relationship with Family Service on a recommendation from its Community Impact and Investment committee. That panel governs the allocation of community dollars that are raised during the nonprofit’s annual campaigns.

The writing was on the wall for some time that the two agencies were parting ways. United Way suspended funding for Family Service in October.

Family Service is one of several agencies that rents space, at a special rate, inside the United Way’s building at 200 E. Franklin Blvd. But it has been working to move out and find a home of its own within the last two months, and is currently trying to buy a city-owned building a few blocks away.

United Way of Gaston County President Deborah Ally said the decision to sever ties with Family Service has been discussed since August. Should the organization ultimately wish to retain its current offices, it could, she said.

“That’s a separate issue,” she said. “Gaston Skills is located in our building, for example, and they’re not an affiliate agency of ours.”

Ally said the vote to no longer include Family Service as one of the 24 agencies that the United Way partners with was taken “very seriously.”

“It’s nothing new that we evaluate expectations and agreements with our agencies every year,” she said. “It’s always been important for us to be good stewards of our donor money, and we want to continue that.”

Family Service Executive Director Jan Deans, who was hired just a few months ago after the staff shakeup, did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

Family Service was founded in 1963 and offers programs such as family counseling, financial guidance, domestic violence support, anger management and children’s advocacy. It operates on a $1.2 million budget with 25 employees and is supported by public funds and grants.

After the financial abnormalities within Family Service were discovered last year, and new staff members were put in place, the organization had a forensic audit conducted, Deans said during a Gastonia City Council meeting last month. Since then, cost-cutting measures have been enacted, such as reduced salaries and eliminated bonuses, and the agency is prepared to move forward without any more United Way funding, Deans said last month.

Family Service still has numerous other avenues of financial support to continue fulfilling its mission, but it has few assets, he said. For that reason, the nonprofit had been trying to buy a building that Gastonia owns at 190 S. South St.

The 10-year financing plan being offered by the city would simplify the process of buying the location and not having to get a large loan from a bank, Deans said.

“We’re not a shot-in-the-dark organization,” Deans told City Council members in December. “We do good work and put smiles on the faces of city leaders and the people we represent.”

A competitor to Family Service filed an upset bid on the two-story building at 190 S. South St., and the city accepted it Jan. 15. City Manager Ed Munn said Family Service has not upped the ante since then. The other group wants to put a Subway sandwich shop at that location.

“They (Family Service) have not filed an upset bid and we have not gotten any indication that they were planning to do that,” he said.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.

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